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China: US Policy Concerns

Here you will find expert testimony on China’s ambitions and the potential for loss of US influence.

Just two quotes, emphasis mine:

In 2017, before the 90 th anniversary of the creation of the PLA, the PLARF

conducted one of the largest known joint ballistic and cruise missile live-fire drills against a mock-up of a U.S.Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) site, resembling the site in South Korea, which led to a major decline in Sino-Korean relations in 2017.

Each of these objectives will implicitly and explicitly push back on U.S. attempts to maintain alliances and sustain and expand growing partnerships. Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative — a signature foreign policy undertaking by Xi, which was elevated into the Party’s constitution at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017 — is meant to assist

in this endeavor. By 2035, the CPC plans to “realize socialist modernization in the first stage” — to build the PRC into a prosperous, modern state. This will require the pursuit of continued economic integration between Asia’s “core” and “periphery,” in the Chinese conception — the core being China and the periphery being Asia’s many smaller and less developed states. In pursuit of ‘win-win’ cooperation with these countries, China expects to make economic and diplomatic gains that will pay dividends throughout the 21st century. By 2049 — the centennial of the founding of the PRC — China intends to have cemented its position as Asia’s primary hegemon. In pursuit of this latter objective, U.S. alliances in the Asia-Pacific must be contained, if not broken altogether.

I suggest you go back to the hotlink and read that page carefully. It is expert testimony about the USA’s interests versus those of the PRC – China.

I expect China to use the Okinawa US base as a leverage point. The base is unpopular whenever US military personnel abuse young Japanese females.

I expect China to use the artificial islands in the China Sea as a leverage point. The threat of disrupting marine trade or seafaring defence will be hard to ignore. I leave you to google China Sea Islands on your own, if you’re unfamiliar with this development.

The THAAD defense system in South Korea deserves a mention. China says it can be used to monitor Chinese missiles and air traffic. The USA position is, to watch North Korea, you need to have the defense system in a short-range fast-response mode. So it ‘can’t’ be used to monitor China. (straight face assumed here, eh?)

The report made available above is thanks to the Federation of American Scientists, www.fas.org, via Secrecy News.